Toools

Find the right tools for your entire workflow.

Live site · Submit a tool · Browse issues

Toools is an open-source tool stack curation platform — not just a directory. Start from a workflow (Stacks) or browse individual tools (Browse), then land on rich detail pages to compare pricing, signals, and alternatives before visiting the official site.

What makes Toools different

Two entry points, one decision loop:

Home → Stacks (by workflow) ──→ Stack detail (stages + editor picks) ──┐
     → Browse (by tool)      ──→ Tool listing (search + filters)      ──┤
                                                                        ▼
                                                          Tool detail (decision hub)
                                                          → Visit website via tracked link

Scenario first, tools second. Popular Stacks like Indie Developer Toolkit and Content Creator Suite map each stage of a workflow to curated recommendations with editor notes — so you pick a path before picking individual apps.

Features

Tool Stacks (core)

• Curated workflows — Multi-stage tool chains for indie devs, creators, startups, and open-source maintainers
• Stage recommendations — Each stage links to approved tools with pricing and trust signals
• Editor notes — Short rationale for why specific tools fit a stage
• Cross-linking — Tool detail pages show Part of these Stacks; category pages nudge users toward full workflows

Browse & decide

• Search & filters — Name, description, tags, category, pricing, platform, open-source, and featured status; sort by popularity, recency, or clicks
• Editor's Picks — Hand-curated featured tools ranked by GitHub stars, Product Hunt votes, and views
• Rich tool pages — About, use cases, pros & cons, alternatives, and an At a Glance sidebar (pricing, platforms, open source, signals, freshness)
• Trust signals — GitHub stars, Product Hunt votes, featured badges, view/click counts, and source links on cards and detail pages
• Click tracking — Outbound visits go through /api/tools/[slug]/out to increment click counts before redirecting

Community & data

• Community submissions — Structured GitHub Issue template and in-app guide at toools.dev/submit
• Bulk import pipeline — Scripts to seed from Product Hunt and GitHub Awesome lists, plus trust-signal backfill
• Dark mode — System-aware theme toggle

Tech Stack

Layer	Choices
Framework	Next.js 16 (App Router)
UI	React 19 + Base UI + shadcn/ui
Language	TypeScript
Database	PostgreSQL via Prisma 7
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4
Typography	Geist Sans & Mono
Icons	Lucide

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• A PostgreSQL database (e.g. Neon, local Postgres, or Vercel Postgres)

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/korbinjoe/toools.git
cd toools
npm install

2. Configure environment

Create a .env file in the project root:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@host:5432/toools"
NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:3000"

Variable	Required	Description
DATABASE_URL	Yes	PostgreSQL connection string
NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL	No	Public site URL (defaults to https://toools.dev)

Import and backfill scripts accept additional optional variables — see Data import scripts below.

3. Set up the database

npx prisma migrate deploy
npx prisma db seed
npx tsx prisma/seed-stacks.ts

Recommended for the full product experience (Stacks pages and cross-links):

npx tsx prisma/seed-tool-enrichments.ts   # use cases, pros, cons on select tools

4. Run the dev server

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server
npm run dev:webpack	Start dev server with Webpack (instead of Turbopack)
npm run build	Generate Prisma client and build for production
npm run start	Start production server
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run backfill:signals	Backfill trust signals (PH votes, GitHub stars, sources)
npx prisma db seed	Seed the database with curated tools
npx prisma studio	Open Prisma's database GUI

Data import scripts

These scripts live in scripts/ (and prisma/ for stack seeds) and require DATABASE_URL in your environment.

Product Hunt import

npx tsx scripts/import-producthunt.ts

Authentication — set one of:

• PRODUCTHUNT_TOKEN — bearer token from producthunt.com/v2/oauth/applications
• PRODUCTHUNT_API_KEY + PRODUCTHUNT_API_SECRET — client credentials (token fetched automatically)

Optional: PH_POSTS_PER_TOPIC (default 100), PH_AUTO_APPROVE=true.

GitHub Awesome lists import

npx tsx scripts/import-awesome-lists.ts

Optional: GITHUB_TOKEN for higher API rate limits, AWESOME_AUTO_APPROVE=true to auto-approve imports.

Trust signal backfill

For tools imported before trust-signal fields were added:

npx tsx scripts/backfill-trust-signals.ts
# or
npm run backfill:signals

Options: --dry-run, --skip-awesome, --skip-github-stars, --skip-producthunt, --limit N. Requires GITHUB_TOKEN (recommended) and/or Product Hunt credentials for full backfill.

Other utilities

npx tsx scripts/sync-categories.ts       # Sync category definitions
npx tsx scripts/recategorize.ts          # Re-run category matching on existing tools
npx tsx scripts/fix-icons.ts             # Backfill missing favicons
npx tsx scripts/db-stats.ts              # Print database statistics
npx tsx prisma/seed-stacks.ts            # Seed tool stacks and stage recommendations
npx tsx prisma/seed-tool-enrichments.ts  # Seed use cases, pros, and cons

Project Structure

src/
├── app/
│   ├── page.tsx              # Home — hero, Popular Stacks, Editor's Picks, Recently Added
│   ├── stacks/               # Workflow listing and stage-based stack detail
│   ├── tools/                # Browse listing (search, filters) and decision-focused detail
│   ├── categories/           # Category browse (with Stacks cross-links)
│   ├── submit/               # Community submission guide
│   └── api/                  # Click tracking redirect, featured tools API
├── components/               # Stack cards, tool signals, filters, layout
└── lib/                      # Database client, stacks data, signal helpers
prisma/
├── schema.prisma             # Tool, Category, Tag, Stack, Stage models
├── migrations/               # SQL migrations
├── seed.ts                   # Seed data (~100 curated tools)
├── seed-stacks.ts            # Nine curated workflows with stage recommendations
└── seed-tool-enrichments.ts  # Use cases, pros, cons for select tools
scripts/                      # Import and maintenance scripts
openspec/                     # Design proposals and change specs

Site navigation: Stacks · Browse · Categories · Submit

Contributing

Submit a tool

The easiest way to contribute is to open a tool submission issue. Fill in the template with the tool name, URL, tagline, description, category, and pricing. Maintainers review and approve submissions. You can also start from the in-app submit page at toools.dev/submit.

Contribute code

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/my-feature)
3. Make your changes and ensure npm run lint passes
4. Open a pull request with a clear description of what changed and why

Bug reports and feature suggestions are welcome via GitHub Issues.

Deployment

The app is designed to deploy on Vercel with a managed PostgreSQL instance. Set DATABASE_URL in your deployment environment, then run migrations and seeds against the production database:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..." npx prisma migrate deploy
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..." npx prisma db seed
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..." npx tsx prisma/seed-stacks.ts
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..." npx tsx prisma/seed-tool-enrichments.ts

See openspec/changes/vercel-deployment/ for detailed deployment notes.

License

This project is open source. See the repository for license details.